diff --git a/lib/webrat.rb b/lib/webrat.rb
index 4060933..39ef24a 100644
--- a/lib/webrat.rb
+++ b/lib/webrat.rb
@@ -12,22 +12,28 @@ module Webrat
     defined?(RAILS_ROOT) ? RAILS_ROOT : Merb.root
   end
 
+  def self.require_xml
+    if on_java?
+      # We need Nokogiri's CSS to XPath support, even if using REXML and Hpricot for parsing and searching
+      require "nokogiri/css"
+      require "hpricot"
+      require "rexml/document"
+    else
+      require "nokogiri"
+      require "webrat/core/nokogiri"
+    end
+  end
+  
+  def self.on_java?
+    RUBY_PLATFORM =~ /java/
+  end
+  
 end
 
-if RUBY_PLATFORM =~ /java/
-  # We need Nokogiri's CSS to XPath support, even if using REXML and Hpricot for parsing and searching
-  require "nokogiri/css"
-  require "hpricot"
-  require "rexml/document"
-else
-  require "nokogiri"
-  require "webrat/core/nokogiri"
-end
+Webrat.require_xml
 
 require "webrat/core"
 
 # TODO: This is probably not a good idea.
 # Probably better for webrat users to require "webrat/rails" etc. directly
-if defined?(RAILS_ENV)
-  require "webrat/rails"
-end
+require "webrat/rails" if defined?(RAILS_ENV)